Augustenborg_Project, Galleri Christoffer Egelund and The Embassy of Iceland proudly present HUMAN by the Icelandic sculptor Steinunn Thórarinsdóttir. Steinunn Thórarinnsdóttirs life-size sculptures representing anonymous human figures elicit an immediate feeling of recognition in us. They represent a general humanity – they are all of us and none of us at the same time. The exhibition is the artist’s first exhibition in Southern Jutland and can be experienced at Augustenborg_Project, Palævej 9A in Augustenborg from the 6th of April 2024 until the 31st of October 2025. Join us at the exhibition opening on April 6th 2024 at 16.00 and meet the artist and the Icelandic ambassador, Árni Þór Sigurðsson.

When you encounter one of Steinunn Thórarinsdóttir’s sculptures, you can’t help but be a little startled. Posed as if interacting naturally with their environment, her life-size human figures are very easily mistaken for real humans at first glance. Only when looking more closely do you realize what they really are: androgynous human figures without individualized features, which, due to their naturalistic modeling and effortless posing, make them seem to be relating to space in much the same way we humans do. They may be lounging on a bench or on the ground, or standing around casually, waving at passersby. Only their rough texture inspired by the volcanic landscapes of Iceland and their stillness betray the fact that they are actually works of art.

When you come across an object which seems at first to be something deeply familiar, like a human being, but which, upon further inspection, turns out to deviate from the familiar in unexpected ways, it often evokes a disturbing feeling that what should be utterly natural is in fact unnatural. This feeling is often referred to as the feeling of the uncanny, a term coined in large part by Sigmund Freud in his 1919 essay of the same name.

A classic example of an object likely to evoke the feeling of the uncanny is the wax doll made in the exact likeness of a particular individual, like the ones you can experience at Madame Tussaud’s. At first glance, such a doll might look like a real human being, but upon further inspection, its eerie stillness betrays its status as an inanimate object.

It is little wonder that Steinunn Thórarinsdóttir’s sculptures can evoke the feeling of the uncanny. Made by taking a cast of a real person, in most cases her son, which is reworked and further transformed in later stages, sometimes being combined with volcanic rocks from Iceland, they retain a trace of the human which makes us able to deeply relate to them. Their anonymous features and androgynous look make them a symbol of a generalized humanity – they could be any of us, and so, they are all of us. And they are not without humor; you can find them in playful poses, like lying flat against a vertical wall, or cut and mirrored in whimsical ways. Whether you are disturbed by their uncanniness, or whether you feel compelled to sit beside them, touch them or take a selfie with them, Steinunn Thórarinsdóttir’s sculptures speak to us on a very basic level and make us reflect on exactly what it is that makes us see something as HUMAN – a question which has quickly become very pressing and important in a world marked by the rapid rise of artificial intelligence. Furthermore, exhibited at Augustenborg_Project, Steinunn’s sculptures and their ability to make us question what we see as human and why gain yet another dimension of meaning. The building that now houses Augustenborg_Project was, until 2015, a psychiatric hospital. Throughout history, psychiatric hospitals and other mental institutions have been prime places for the dehumanization of individuals. Here, people have long been reduced to patients, to numbers and to the status of a successful or failed treatment. When we meet a sculpture by Steinunn Thórarinsdóttir that makes us question our definition of what is human in these exact rooms, we cannot help but think of the many individuals who, where we stand, have been forcefully given a status in between the human and the non-human.

Steinunn Thórarinsdóttir (b. 1955) is one of Iceland’s most famous artists. She holds a BA Honors degree in Fine Art from the University of Portsmouth and studied sculpture at Portsmouth College of Art and Design and Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna, Italy. She has received the honors of The Order of the Falcon and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Hull in England for her achievements. Her works have been exhibited at museums, galleries and in public space around the world, including in Copenhagen, Reykjavik, New York, London and Toronto.

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